The French presidency aims at finalising the content of the revision of the Machinery Directive during its term.
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Since the release in April last year of the draft proposal from the Commission on the revision of Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, a parallel work has been initiated at both the European Parliament and at the Council level with the target to find a compromise between these two institutions by May 2022.
When it comes to the Parliament, the IMCO (Internal Market and Consumer Protection) Committee is responsible for preparing the European assembly’s views. Additionally, the EMPL (Employment and Social Affairs) Committee expresses an opinion, mainly oriented on technical requirements. The vote in the IMCO Committee is planned for 16 March, and compromise amendments are currently being discussed.
The Council work is carried out in the Working Party on technical harmonisation, which already held almost twenty meetings on the topic. The intent is to have a finalised position by end March / beginning of April, so that compromise discussions can be held with the Parliament to respect the timeline.
Conformity assessment for products exposed to a higher risk, and the way to cover artificial intelligence ensuring a safety function in the final text are key topics for discussion. When it comes to the latter, the publication of the Machinery Regulation was planned to occur at the same time as the Artificial Intelligence Regulation (AIR). Nevertheless, considering the difficulties to reach agreements on this last document, legislators may consider disconnecting the publications to keep the timeline for the Machinery Regulation, completed by a further amendment once the AIR is published.
CEMA continues to engage with other industry stakeholders, the European Commission, European Parliament, EU Member States and the French Presidency of the Council to advocate our views and recommendations on this fundamental file for our industry.